Typically, carrier stock with individual container-receiving apertures for machine application to substantially identical containers is formed, as by die-cutting, from a single sheet of resilient polymeric material, such as low density polyethylene.
An example of such stock for machine application to substantially identical containers in three longitudinal rows of indeterminate length is disclosed in Klygis U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,331. As disclosed therein, such stock may be transversely severed, after it has been applied to such containers, to produce packages with three containers, six containers, or other multiples of three containers. A suitable machine for applying such stock is disclosed in Benno et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,949.
Typically, each such container has a chime formed on its upper end, or on each of its ends. In machine application of carrier stock to such containers, it is conventional to apply such stock to the upper ends of the containers, in such manner that edges of band segments of the stock bear upwardly against the chimes when the individual carriers severed from the stock are lifted via finger apertures formed in the stock.
However, it has been suggested (see, e.g., Klygis patent, supra. column 2, lines 43 through 45) that such stock may be alternatively applied to other portions of such containers, such as lower end portions of such containers. It would be particularly desirable to apply such stock to the side walls of such containers.
As disclosed in a co-pending application filed May 7, 1990, by Lonnie Ray Seymour and Kevin Dewain Moore, under Ser. No. 07/519,860, and assigned commonly herewith, a machine has been developed for applying such stock to the side walls of such containers. The co-pending application is entitled "Apparatus and Method for Applying Multi-Package Device."
The machine disclosed in the co-pending application noted above employs two camming plates, which have edge contact with the stock as the stock is moved through the machine, to cam the stock downwardly along the side walls of the containers. Considerable friction is created between the plate edges and the moving stock. Such friction tends to cause necking down or breaking at diagonal band segments near the outer edges of carrier stock according to prior designs.
A need has been created, to which this invention is addressed, for carrier stock that can be effectively applied to the side walls of such containers, as by the machine disclosed in the copending application noted above, with minimal risk of necking down or breaking of diagonal band segments near the outer edges of such stock.